Kontakt 6?

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stubbsonic
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Re: Kontakt 6?

Post by stubbsonic »

I guess the wavetable thing is a pretty significant feature.

I don't know much about the guts of a wavetable synth. Are wavetables standardized at all? If I have wavetables from another synth (like Dune 2) can they be loaded in Kontakt 6?
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Re: Kontakt 6?

Post by cuttime »

stubbsonic wrote:I guess the wavetable thing is a pretty significant feature.

I don't know much about the guts of a wavetable synth. Are wavetables standardized at all? If I have wavetables from another synth (like Dune 2) can they be loaded in Kontakt 6?
Not sure about this, but there is some interchangeability. I've used this for editing wavetables in SynthMaster and Synthmaster One (both of which will import Serum wavetables):

http://synthtech.com/waveedit
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Re: Kontakt 6?

Post by cuttime »

Well, I just jumped in. The improved CPU performance is what sold me. I'm not in a position to give a full report just yet.
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Re: Kontakt 6?

Post by stubbsonic »

Is it free? Not in the store. Looks like the installer just downloaded.

Thanks!
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Re: Kontakt 6?

Post by mhschmieder »

So that's two of us that are seeing improved CPU and load times.

Once you're bought in and have Kontakt 6 vs. Kontakt Player 6, does the MIDI keyboard return? That's CRITICAL to my workflow, as I often have to quickly audition a LOT of different sound sources in the most effective way possible, to make a decision before investing time in a more detailed approach.

Not to mention that it quickly shows me the note range -- especially critical for limited instruments such as ocarina, where I need to match the range of the song even more than find the most ideal sound. It also shows keyswitches.

I'd be surprised if this is also missing from regular Kontakt 6, as it's a critical part of NKS integration. But I think I recall NKS being a pro-only feature, so maybe Kontakt Player doesn't take advantage of NKS?
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Re: Kontakt 6?

Post by cuttime »

mhschmieder wrote: Once you're bought in and have Kontakt 6 vs. Kontakt Player 6, does the MIDI keyboard return?
I'm not in front of it right now, but isn't there a reveal button on the Kontakt window top bar near the CPU meter?
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Re: Kontakt 6?

Post by corbo-billy »

stubbsonic wrote:If I have wavetables from another synth (like Dune 2) can they be loaded in Kontakt 6?
Yes, with the Import Group function in Group Editor or load the samples from Files browser and set sampler mode to Wavetable .

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Re: Kontakt 6?

Post by mhschmieder »

I didn't see a reveal icon for the keyboard earlier, and clicked on just about everything in the GUI. :-) I have really bad eyesight though.
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Re: Kontakt 6?

Post by billf »

mhschmieder wrote:I didn't see a reveal icon for the keyboard earlier, and clicked on just about everything in the GUI. :-) I have really bad eyesight though.
I had a difficult time finding it too. Of course, the NI GUI isn't the most intuitive thing ever invented, so it might not be a matter of eyesight. :D
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Re: Kontakt 6?

Post by corbo-billy »

mhschmieder wrote:I didn't see a reveal icon for the keyboard earlier, and clicked on just about everything in the GUI. :-) I have really bad eyesight though.
Use F3 command or this Menu .

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Re: Kontakt 6?

Post by mhschmieder »

Ah, yes -- it's hard for me to keep track of similar icons when I'm trying to traverse an interface. I much prefer menus. I also didn't notice the tool tips for hover, show up at the bottom of the window vs. right below the tool bar.

This trend towards material Design really bugs me, and I refuse to use that style in my own apps. I rarely understand what any of those fat-line icons mean compared to older-school icons. And most interfaces have discarded tool tips altogether.

I consider clicking quite dangerous; I explore before doing so. Too easy to do permanent damage or lose data otherwise. Clicking is not the right way to explore and learn. Anyway, I'm just saying this in the context of general UX trends that are permeating everything.

Now that I have customized my experience in more detail, I see exactly zero differences between Kontakt 5 and Kontakt 6, at the highest level of the interface, other than some differences in the default settings as already noted.

Kontakt 6 is still showing itself to be consistently faster and leaner than Kontakt 5.
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Re: Kontakt 6?

Post by cuttime »

I still like K6 for it's overall "snappiness", and I've scoured the GUI differences with K5 and found only one, very significant difference. K6 has removed the "Database" tab. As one who has spent years tagging different files and patches, I find this is rather disturbing. There is a discussion at NI here:

https://www.native-instruments.com/foru ... ow.337027/

I'm currently searching for workarounds, as the "search" function seems to only search licensed, installed libraries. This is crazy. I would hate to have to keep going back to K5 for database searches.
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Re: Kontakt 6?

Post by cuttime »

All in all, it seems this update is geared towards Komplete Kontrol, which I don't have. The new libraries are okay, but not great. Their controls are designed around KK. Again, I like the CPU efficiency, but otherwise, stay away. At $99, I'd say I wasted about $40.
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Re: Kontakt 6?

Post by monkey man »

Surely they'd fix an issue as glaring as the missing database search, cuttime?

I'll have no choice but to use v6 onwards 'cause I've yet to jump on the NI bandwagon, which will happen when I get Komplete 12.

Hearing your advice, therefore, to "stay away", scares me a little.

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Re: Kontakt 6?

Post by nk_e »

Also, I have a bunch of Quick Load instruments set up in K5. These do NOT appear in K6...Quick Load shows nothing.

Has this been anyone else’s experience? If not, does anyone know of a fix? Thx.

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